cjberg - you show 56 - this is a diagram for 56 - hope it helps.

 

door switch

The switch acts a ground for the dome light so your switch needs to contact bare metal. The pictured switch is rusty and seems to be missing the spring washer(for lack of a better word) that holds it in the hole in the door jam and establishes the ground contact. There are a bunch for sale on ebay.:bowtier:

 

The switch acts a ground for the dome light so your switch needs to contact bare metal. The pictured switch is rusty and seems to be missing the spring washer(for lack of a better word) that holds it in the hole in the door jam and establishes the ground contact. There are a bunch for sale on ebay.:bowtier:

The switch pictured is for a 55, 56 chevy . 57's have the spring to hold them in.
55 and 56 are held in with screws Jim

 

I think you do need at least 1 new door switch. Lektrity may have a hard time getting through the rust to the body to ground it.
The original wiring was a white wire that goes from one terminal of the dome light to both door switches and the rear harness plug near the drivers kick panel. ...... http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/bulletins/55fsn140612.html

55/56 door switches are screwed to the door jam.

 

Thank you.

The wiring to the door jams doesn't exist, so I need to add that to the dome light wire which goes strait to the headlight switch.

I will order a couple new ones, even though the passenger works. I would rather fix it once.

Cj

 

Notice on the diagram that the power to the dome light goes through the orange wire from the headlight switch and the white wire from the dome light goes to the door switches and the headlight switch. Any one of the 3 switches will ground the dome light to turn it on.

 

bullets

The connectors at the dome light are bullet connectors . You have to remove the housing to install them . Twist the three tabs so you can remove the housing.

 

Ok, I figured everything out. Was able to get both I have working.

The switch takes a male blade connector slid through the slot on the back. I had the orange and white wires run to the dome light, and 12v pos to the orange wire. the white wire ran strait to the headlight switch. but I can not get the headlight switch to turn on the dome light. But both front doors are working. I will probably install 2 in the rear doors in the future.

Thank you all for your help!

Cj

 

You can use a spade connector for the switches. Might have to grind off the little tabs on each side for clearance. The switches only provide ground for the domb light to operate. The orange wire supplies power and the white wires connected to all the switches provides the contact to ground to operate the light. See the wiring diagram that Bilaire posted